Columbus cancels yard-waste pickup

Friday

Jan 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2009 at 4:09 AM

Columbus has canceled weekly yard-waste pickup to save money in a tight budget.

The announcement that the city is not renewing its contract to pick up grass clippings and other yard debris came around noon today and is expected to save $3 million, said Columbus Assistant Service Director Mary Carran Webster. The contract with Rumpke Inc. expires Saturday.

About 26,000 tons of leaves, twigs and grass clippings swept up annually from Columbus residents' yards will have no place to go starting next week.

Columbus will stop yard-waste collection after its $3 million annual contract with a private hauler ends Saturday, Public Service Director Mark Kelsey announced today.

The cut was the latest announced this week as Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Council members seek to wring another $13 million out of a 2009 budget plan that already includes $82.9 million in layoffs and reduced services.

Without city pickup, it will be up to residents to haul their own yard waste or hire someone to take it to composting facilities. Some worry that much of the yard waste, which is banned from Ohio landfills, will end up there anyway - or in ravines, rivers and other environmentally sensitive places.

"That is just a bad idea," said D Searcy, chairwoman of the Clintonville Area Commission. "It's one of those things that's short-sighted."

City crews will have no way of weeding out yard waste that's tossed in with other trash because trucks pick up and empty residential containers by remote-controlled arms, Assistant Public Service Director Mary Carran Webster acknowledged.

John Remy, spokesman for the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, said the landfill ban applies only to "dedicated loads," haulers with trucks full of yard waste alone. If it's in a truck with other trash, he said, yard waste will be dumped at the Franklin County landfill.

Webster and Coleman spokesman Dan Williamson said the city is encouraging residents not to do that, partly because the extra volume would cost the city more in landfill tipping fees.

Columbus collected 26,000 tons of yard waste from 230,000 households last year through its contract with Rumpke Inc.

Kelsey said the city is exploring less-expensive yard-waste options. City Councilman Hearcel F. Craig, who chairs the council's public-service committee, said one option includes scaled-back services during the spring and fall.

Officials stressed today that dumping yard waste isn't an option for Columbus residents. In addition to publicizing Franklin County locations that accept yard waste free of charge, SWACO also put in a plug for its Nail-a-Dumper hot line - 614-871-5322 - that takes calls 24 hours a day about illegal dumping in Franklin County.

Webster said anti-graffiti cameras installed in Clintonville's Glen Echo Ravine in 2007 also have been used to catch dumpers in the act.

rvitale@dispatch.com

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